Can Matt Patricia pull off the rebuild twice? Inside Ohio State’s wide open 2026 defense

Ohio State Buckeyes defensive coordinator Matt Patricia celebrates after defeating the Michigan Wolverines in the NCAA football game at Michigan Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. | Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Ohio State enters 2026 as one of the clear top teams in the country, and this time that’s mostly about the offense. Julian Sayin, Jeremiah Smith and a loaded skill group have made the Buckeyes’ attack the story of the summer under new coordinator Arthur Smith.

But the defense is what actually won Ohio State its national championship back in 2025, and that unit in my opinion is the one that will decide whether this team is just very good or genuinely championship-caliber.

That’s on second-year coordinator Matt Patricia, who’s being asked to rebuild the best defense in the country for the second offseason in a row, with almost none of the same parts.

The man under the headset

Patricia’s hire in February 2025 wasn’t popular. A longtime Patriots assistant and Super Bowl-winning coordinator who later flamed out as Detroit’s head coach, he hadn’t coached in college since he was a grad assistant at Syracuse in 2003.

People wondered if an NFL lifer could relate to 19-year-olds or run a scheme that was both pro-complex and teachable. It worked anyway. Ohio State finished No. 1 nationally in total, passing and scoring defense in year one, becoming the first team since 2011 Alabama to lead the country in both yards and points allowed per game.

The Buckeyes did all that behind All-Americans Caleb Downs, Kayden McDonald and Arvell Reese.

That performance made Patricia the hottest name on the coordinator market. So Ohio State responded by making him the highest-paid assistant coach in college football, guaranteeing him $3.75 million in 2026. He’s talked openly about wanting stability for his family over another job jump.

But now comes the hard part, seven defensive starters gone again, and this time there isn’t as stacked a group of former blue-chip underclassmen waiting in the wings like there was last year. Patricia has to teach scheme, terminology and “the standard” to a defense that’s leaning heavily on transfers.

Whether he can pull that off twice in a row is the biggest swing factor for Ohio State’s national title chances.

What Columbus lost, and why this isn’t a normal rebuild

Seven Ohio State defenders got drafted in 2026.

Linebackers Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles both went top-10 (fifth to the Giants, seventh to the Commanders), and safety Caleb Downs went 11th to Dallas. Kayden McDonald and Davison Igbinosun went in the second round, while Caden Curry and Lorenzo Styles Jr. also got their names called in later rounds.

Downs, Reese and Styles weren’t just talented, they were Ohio State’s three leading tacklers and the emotional center of the whole defense. Losing that kind of production and leadership two offseasons in a row is almost unheard of.

Here’s the thing, though, Patricia’s done this before. He walked into 2025 replacing an entire national championship defensive line, Jack Sawyer, JT Tuimoloau, Tyleik Williams, Ty Hamilton, and still built the No. 1 defense in the country.

That track record is buying him a lot of benefit of the doubt right now, and it’s a big part of why Ohio State is still being talked about as one of the best teams in the country even with so many questions on that side of the ball.

The building blocks: who’s back

This isn’t a total teardown like last year, there are real pieces to build around. Kenyatta Jackson Jr. is the anchor up front, a senior edge rusher who came back after racking up 28 tackles and 11 tackles for loss (6.5 sacks) in 2025.

Next to him, Eddrick Houston, Ohio State’s top-rated recruit on defense in the 2024 class, is stepping into a full-time starting role after flashing with 21 tackles, four TFLs and three sacks in a part-time role, including a sack and a half in the Cotton Bowl loss to Miami.

People around the program are already comparing his path to Kayden McDonald’s breakout a year ago.

In the secondary, Jaylen McClain has quietly become the leader of the back end. A four-star recruit out of New Jersey who wasn’t supposed to play early, McClain started as a sophomore, earned third-team All-Big Ten, and was Ohio State’s only two-time “Iron Buckeye” honoree this offseason.

He’s one of just three players representing the program at Big Ten Media Days, alongside Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayin, and that should tell you what the staff thinks of him as a leader.

At corner, sophomore Devin Sanchez is the guy everyone’s buzzing about. The former five-star and No. 1 corner in the 2025 class played behind Igbinosun and Styles Jr. as a freshman, but he closed the year allowing just four catches for 33 yards over his final four games.

He hasn’t been shy about it this summer either saying, “I’m not freshman Devin no more… I’m gonna be one of the best corners in the nation.” He’ll start next to Jermaine Mathews Jr., who came back for a fifth year instead of leaving for the draft. That Sanchez-Mathews duo could be one of the best corner duos in the country.

The new faces

With less returning experience than a year ago, Ohio State went and got proven production in the portal instead of chasing recruiting stars.

The headline add to me is linebacker Christian Alliegro, a 6-foot-4, 241-pound Wisconsin transfer with 35 games of Big Ten experience. He famously broke his arm playing against Ohio State last year and just kept going and playing.

McClain himself called Alliegro out this summer as an under-the-radar name, saying he’s “an animal” who “plays really fast and aggressive.” He should line up next to Payton Pierce, who’s stepping into the Mike linebacker spot after backing up Reese and Styles last year.

Up front, Ohio State grabbed Alabama defensive tackle James Smith and edge rusher Qua Russaw, a former five-star who’s still finding his footing but brin...

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